Louisiana workers more likely to pull down low wages, study finds

Cara Owsley / The Times-PicayuneA server at the legendary Cafe du Monde. Nearly three-quarters of restaurant and serving occupations made low wages and Louisiana had one of the nation's highest proportion of workers earning poverty wages.

While Mississippi and Tennessee had the largest share of workers earning poverty-level wages -- less than, for example, $23,005 or $10.73 per hour for a family four -- Louisiana was just a few notches down, at number six.

That may be largely due to the type of jobs available in areas like New Orleans that have a tourism-based economy. For instance, at the worst end of the wage scale, three-quarters of restaurant-prep workers and well more than half of service workers made poverty wages. Only a fraction of people in sectors such as computers, architecture and engineering or law made less than the poverty level.

Female and young workers were over-represented in the ranks of low-wage workers, as were African-Americans and Hispanics, Thiess found.

Thiess also notes that as long as unemployment remains high, wages will not climb. That requires a tighter labor market, which gives workers bargaining power.